Generally, we don't really think about motorcycles as doctor's rides. Usually, when you think "doctor," BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes come to mind. Most doctors I've known only think of motorcycles as effective providers of organs for transplantation. But that wasn't always the case, as this 1915 ad for Emblem Motorcycles shows.

This ad ran in the April 1915 issue of the New Charlotte Medical Journal, from Charlotte, NC. And the ad makes the case that their motorcycle would be a great, economical way for doctors to get rapidly to and from house calls and other emergency visits. And, if you allow for California-style lane-splitting, they're probably right. But maybe not with that sidecar. Was that for patients?

Doctors may have had a good relationship with earlier Emblem motorcycles, which, lacking brakes and capable of over 65 mph, probably provided a good deal of business.